An intense leading man, Savage is known especially for his roles in late-1970s films. He played one of the three friends serving in Vietnam in The Deer Hunter (1978). He memorably filled an emotionally intense role in The Onion Field (1979) and appeared in Hair (1979). Among his many other film roles, The Amateur(1981), Salvador (1986), was the prince in a live-action Beauty and the Beast (1987), Do the Right Thing (1989) and played the teacher in White Squall (1996), The Mouse (1997), TheThin Red Line (1998), and Message in a Bottle (1999).